Tunable sulphur doping on CuFe2O4 nanostructures for the selective elimination of organic dyes from water

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 6306 - 13
• Main Authors: Aslam, Anam, Abid, Muhammad Zeeshan, Rafiq, Khezina, Rauf, Abdul, Hussain, Ejaz
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 18.04.2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/301; 639/638; 639/925; Anions; Carcinogens; Dyes; Graphene; Humanities and Social Sciences; Morphology; multidisciplinary; Photocatalysis; Pollutants; Quantum dots; Radiation; Recombination; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sulfur
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-33185-0

In this work, sulphur doped copper ferrites (S-CuFe 2 O 4 ) photocatalysts were successfully synthesized for the first time using the facile hydrothermal method. The as-synthesized photocatalysts were characterized through XRD, Raman, TGA, FT-IR, UV–Vis-DRS, SEM, EDX and PL techniques. The results revealed that doping with sulphur has been found to be a suitable alternative that causes strain in the lattices as anions replace the oxygen from the CuFe 2 O 4 nanostructures. Due to sulphur dopants, photocatalysts are able to efficiently trap and transfer the photoinduced charges, which readily suppress charge recombination. A UV–Vis spectrophotometer was used to monitor the degradation of selective toxic organic dyes (RhB, CR, MO, and CV) in aqueous media. The dye degradation results provide evidence for the surprisingly superior performance of S-CuFe 2 O 4 over pristine CuFe 2 O 4 . On the basis of its efficiencies, this work can be assigned as an excellent candidate for photocatalysis science.